‘I trust you guys, Ella. I know you know what you’re doing,’ he said, a soft smile appearing on his handsome face. ‘Night.’
When he was out of sight, I inhaled a sharp breath, slowly realising that whatever Mr Link might say, the truth was I had no fucking idea what I was doing. I had no real idea if I should have come to the States in the first place.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Ella
The next morning, the three of us were far more subdued than usual in the car that picked us up to take us to Flirtify. While Zola and Katy were recovering from a night out exploring the local bars, I had spent mine researching Philip’s new girlfriend through her visible socials. She seemed flawless – beautiful, charitable, always posting about her good deeds at the cat and dog home, at the soup kitchen. I envied her life, her immaculate appearance, her sunny nature and most of all, her relationship with him. I noticed she first posted with him only a couple of days after Philip and I had that horrible row, and they looked cosy, contented and comfortable even. I wondered how he knew her. If they’d met before and always kept in touch, or if it had been a whirlwind romance. I spent hours trying to remember his smile, his touch, the last time we kissed. It wasn’t long ago, yet I was forgetting it all. So much had happened in such a short time, and I wanted, more than anything, to have the chance to go back and do things differently with him.
We were driving slowly through the crazy New York traffic when Katy’s phone pinged. Katy reached into her pocket to check it and then gasped, her hand flying to her mouth in shock.
‘Guys.’ Her voice shook.
‘What now?’ Zola tutted, squinting over to the screen. ‘Shut the fuck up!’
I was craning my neck, trying to look. ‘What is it? Show me!’
Katy turned the screen around so Zola and I could see clearly. It was a message from an unknown number with an image attached from yesterday’s photo shoot. In the photo, which had clearly been shamelessly edited, Katy had a humongous pink dick coming out of her mouth, Zola had wild red devil horns and a tooth scrubbed out, and I had a huge black cross over my face with the letters ‘irrelevant hoe’ scrawled across it in angry capitals. We scrolled to the bottom of the message together.
Unknown:Time’s up TARTan trolls. The Big Apple’s allergic to haggis!
My mouth was gaping open, and I felt Katy clutch my arm tightly.
‘What the actual hell is this?’ I asked, looking at the photo again.
‘A threat!’ Zola gulped.
‘Someone really doesn’t want us here,’ Katy whimpered.
‘Someone who doesn’t know I’m English!’ Zola shook her head. ‘Who would do something like this?’
I suddenly became aware of our surroundings in the car. Our driver, who was completely silent, seemed to sense the chaos we’d sparked since flying over here. Was anyone watching or listening? Maybe he was spying on us.
‘And haggis? So stereotypical! I haven’t even tried it!’ I tried to laugh, but it came out as a weird titter.
‘Really?’ Katy seemed surprised. ‘The wee haggis bonbons from the Smokin’ Fox on Waterloo Street are genuinely banging!’
‘Really?’ I said, though I’d never been.
‘Guys, seriously?’ Zola hissed. ‘Think!’
‘What about Travis?’ I whispered. ‘I mean, he’s clearly the one who has a motive to get rid of us. That wee bastard doesn’t want his dirty cheating secret out!’
‘Yeah, but he doesn’t seem stupid. He’s risking a total backlash when he’s already tried to clear the air.’ Zola was lost in thought for a few more seconds. ‘I know the tech guys weren’t thrilled I’ve joined the team, but I don’t think they resent me to quite this extent. Plus, who am I kidding? They would be able to make that grim pink cock much more realistic.’
My eyes re-examined Katy’s innocent face with the monstrous boaby sticking out. Jesus.
‘Or Britney,’ I hummed. ‘She’s snippy as hell – and obviously has an issue with me being there. I’ve no idea why. Maybe she has a crush on Travis? Or feels threatened by our PR background and Jimmy’s enthusiasm for us?’
Katy covered her face.
‘Could she have seen you two together?’ I added, thinking of any possibility here.
Zola laughed. ‘Babe, she was getting finger-blasted in Central Park – I’m surprised she didn’t make the national news!’
‘Yeah, where were the Central Park rangers when you needed them?’ I giggled.
Katy ignored the question. ‘Maybe we should go to the police. This is scary!’ Her breathing quickened.
